10th annual Art Walk begins Friday

Thursday

Oct 11, 2012 at 1:00 PM

This year's Art Walk in La Junta will include seven venues.

For the first time a call for artists was put out asking for entries that used something that was recycled or upcycled in the artwork. Patty Johnson has found an old car radiator to which she added paint and lights.

Tony Lopez used rusted barbed wire and decorated it with rusted belt buckles to create a globe light hanging from an old horse collar hame. Susan Elliott has used an old window as the “canvas” for a painting of a bird house.

These are just a few of the entries received that show how “Art Changes Things,” a theme that will be showcased during the art show that will be open on Friday, Oct. 12, from 5 to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m to 4 p.m. at Somewhere on San Juan.

This show is being held in conjunction with the Art Walk that will include six other venues on Saturday, Oct. 13.

They include:Prairie Piecers Quilt Guild will be displaying quilts in the basement of the Methodist Church, 6th and San Juan. Quiltmaking has to be the ultimate example of art changing things. Quilters cut up fabric to create the palette of colors they will then sew back together to create their colorful, unique quilts.

1st Street Emporium, 112 West 1st, will be showcasing the original arts and crafts of many local artists, along with Lynn Horner’s old books. Their hours on Saturday are from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Libby Barbee, has an installation piece in the north window of Colorado Pipeline, 207 Colorado. Titled “Target Panic,” it examines the relationship between Americans and the environment that is embodied by the American hunting tradition and provides a humorous look at the artifice often involved in the tradition’s specific practices. It will be in place through October.

A La Junta High School graduate, Barbee, completed her undergraduate studies at Colorado State University in Fort Collins; receiving a BFA in painting, a BFA in Art History, and a BA in French Language. In 2011, she received her master of fine arts degree from the Mount Royal School of Art at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Md.

Also planned for that window will be a display of four of the chairs that were donated to the “Chair Affair” fundraiser for the Arkansas Valley Pregnancy Center earlier this year, according to Julie Worley who headed up that project. These now beautiful old chairs showcase how art can change things.

Clothing creations from Marketplace of India will be featured in a special trunk show at CrossRoads MarketPlace, 211 Colorado, according to manager Rhonda Jones. Every garment features hand block printed fabric and some form of embroidery made by women who have been rescued from sex trafficing and are being taught a new way to live and support themselves and families. Jones and her assistant manager, Barb Ingles, have been working on several projects that demonstrate how art and creativeness can change and upcycle used clothing into something better than it was.

Cheryl Lindner of Barista is planning the opening of a new art show at her coffee shop during the Art Walk. After enjoying seeing all the ways art can change things all over town, stop at The Barista for rest and refreshments and view another art show.

Rounding out the Art Walk is the show of Robert Gaines’ artistic photographs of Bent’s Old Fort at Koshare Indian Museum, 115 West 18th. Gaines recently moved to La Junta and has been completely taken in by the mystique of Bent’s Old Fort, which shows in his photographs. The museum is open 1 to 4 p.m.